Xia looks up from her drink with an inquisative look at the man's comment about retrieving what he had sent them to get this time. 'What is he speaking of, she asks herself.

"We found several of those derro and dealt with them. We also found a good many of the missing citizenry and travellers alike. They have been freed and are currently under the city watches care. We did discover a rat statue, whether it is the artifact or not remains to be seen. Noone cared to come into physical contact with the hideous thing." The elf motions for Kriger to present the wrapped statue from his magical bag.

Kriger looks up as Chairman Jacobson arrives at their table. The older man has the gleam of an experienced adventurer as he looks them over. The barbarian nods at the man’s comment.

“Aye, little worse for wear. But we will live. Though, the derro we encountered are not.”

With Xia’s mention of the statue, Kriger produces the magical bag and set it’s on the table. After a moment of fumble around in it, he pulls out the hideous rat statue wrapped in one of dead derro’s cloaks. The barbarian sets on the table, and uncovers enough for the chairman to view.“My opinion is destroy the ugly thing.”

kelvin sips at his milk thoughtfully, and then purses his now milk-mustachioed lips as he considers the unwrapped statue

"Destroying it is one course, indeed. To momentarily play devil's advocate here though, it is much less of a threat up in the light of day, and with the conniving Derro and Mites now dead. Up here I wonder if your town could make good use of such an item, handled by a trusted individual in an official capacity of course, but in the peoples' name rather than against them. I'm sure merchants of foodstuffs would be thrilled to be thoroughly rid of any pest problems, at a fee of course. Just ah, a thought, I would mull it over, were I you...."

He then gives Maylor a tentative smile and begins adjusting his coat idly.

"I do not believe that we saw the derro actually take it up and invoke any magical properties from the artifact, but we did encounter an unusual number of larger than normal rats. The creatures seemed to be under the command of something, as they fought to their death. If we had perhaps invaded a nest, i might consider such an action as defending their home. While not definitive, if I were to make a guess, I would say that was one such power of the artifact." The elf says in response to the chairman's query.

Frakas nods to Maylor as he approaches. He lets the others talk for a bit, but chimes in with Xia. "Aye them Derro be a nasty bunch, it'ell bee too soon for I wanna be seeing them buggers again efen ye asken me."

Sonja gets bored with all the conversation and lays down next to the Gnomes dangling feet stretching out her long legs and letting out a high pitched yawn.

Maylor nods with a frown of consternation, "Yes, it is well that the derro are dealt with. Slavers in the city's underground that are capturing citizens are very problematic and I am happy that you put a stop to it."

"Dire rats in the sewers, that is not so uncommon. But, you think there was a connection to them and this artifact. The derro were using this to control them?"

Kelvin shrugs slightly at Maylor's question " I don't know that we saw it being used directly, but I can further attest to the rats behaving rather unnervingly unlike they would naturally. We didn't just encounter aggressive rats in their native habitat, we were ambushed and almost surrounded by what felt like a directed and coordinated effort by multiple independent giant rodents and a swarm of the smaller variety to boot. A combination, that I really must assume to be exceedingly unlikely under normal... non-magical circumstances, that is."

Kriger leaned back from the table as the chairman examined the idol artifact. Just looking at it now, gave the barbarian the creeps. Despite what Kelvin had suggested, the blond haired man still thought it best to destroy the artifact.

At Mayors’ questioning, Kriger furrowing his brows thinking back on the battle. The barbarian couldn’t recall anything precise, but he nodded his agreement that the rats seemed to have been controlled.“There were also the mites. Little boogers they were. Not sure that is relevant. We did find another rat mosaic in the floor down there. Oh, and there were the two humans we encountered before descending to the abandoned city level. They seemed out of place, but perhaps part of the slave ring.”

Veric gestures to Kelvin, "We did find a book that we could not read. Maybe that will shed some light on things."

The cleric had been silent, but he was not sure why they were failing to mention the book found in the derro's room. He figures that Kelvin just forgot.

"Oh, we also found several cages of regularly sized rats in cages where the derro had this artifact. Mayhap that means something as well. Those rats were not your typical dire rats. We had fought those before. These were much tougher and about twice the size."

Frakas face lights up at the mention of the book. "Aye! I be forgetten tha' dern book we be finding." He says with a snap of his fingers. "I must be loosing me memory in me old age, har har har!" He muses, although at nine and fifty years old he is not even middle aged for one of Gnomish blood.

Kelvin colors a bit at the mention of the book, the item that he himself had been so focused on and yet still managed to forget that it might be relevant to report , his face turning an odd mixture of grey-green and red.

"Oh yes, that, I was thinking we'd get that book looked at, I am particularly interested in what it might have to say, so while you should by all means go right on and take it, please do let me know what you find out, if you do find anything that is..."

Kriger nods and frowns as he too had forgotten about the book. He hadn't been focuses much on it, but it is still an important detail of their trek to the sewers."Yeah, those rats were tough. " Kriger adds to Veric's thoughts on those rodents they had encountered.

"Anything else you can think of that we forget, Veric?" the barbarian asks the cleric sincerely. The holy man certainly had a better memory than most of them at the table.